Betterment: Jon Stein

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.8 • 31.1K Ratings

🗓️ 29 October 2018

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When Jon Stein realized he couldn't stand the sight of blood, he gave up the idea of becoming a doctor. Instead, he went into finance, but soon grew restless with "helping banks make more money." So he decided to build a business where he could help everyday investors make more money: an online service that would use a combination of algorithms and human advisers. Jon launched Betterment at a precarious time — shortly after the financial crash of 2008. But today, the company has roughly 13 billion dollars under management. PLUS in our postscript "How You Built That," how Gerry Stellenberg combined his knack for technology and his love for pinball to create the P3: a pinball machine that allows a real-life ball to interact with virtual objects. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime members, you can listen to how I built this early and ad-free on Amazon Music.
0:07.0	Download the app today.
0:09.0	New years is here, and with it brings the possibility of change.
0:13.0	As one behavioral scientist put it, first starts are really powerful.
0:17.0	So as you head into 2023, LifeKit is a great resource to help you plan your life and tackle changes, both big and small.
0:24.0	Listen to the LifeKit podcast from NPR.
0:27.0	Hey, it's Guy here, and I want to let you know that we still have a few tickets left for our upcoming live show in Los Angeles on December 5th.
0:35.0	I'll be sitting down with Michael Dubin, he's the co-founder of Dollar Shave Club, which he turned into a billion dollar brand in just five years.
0:43.0	Now, if you haven't been to a live show, they're super fun, and it's a great chance to meet other listeners and builders just like you.
0:50.0	So if you're in the LA area on December 5th, please come by and say hi.
0:54.0	Our live show is supported by American Express, and to get your tickets, go to nprpresent.org.
1:00.0	And I hope to see you there.
1:03.0	I've been up all night.
1:06.0	I knew that I would have to deliver this amazing speech if I wanted betterment to be successful.
1:12.0	And this is my baby. This is the thing that I've been working on for the last three years, and at a blackberry at the time.
1:18.0	And the blackberry timestamps when you leave these notes. And I woke up in the morning, and I saw every 30 minutes all night long.
1:24.0	I had been awake, and like writing down edits to my presentation.
1:29.0	It was probably the most nerve-wracking day of my life.
1:34.0	From npr, it's how I built this. The show about innovators and entrepreneurs and idealists and the stories behind the movements they built.
1:51.0	I'm Guy Raaz on today's show, How John Stein decided just after the 2008 financial crash to launch what else?
1:59.0	An online investment company. And now we grew it into a business that manages more than $10 billion.
2:09.0	Okay, let's face it, retirement planning is not simple. There are 401Ks and Roth IRAs and Sep IRAs and CD's and ETFs and mutual funds and bonds and individual stocks.
	...

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